José Abraham García Oquendo , president of the Community Action Board of Pascuitá, municipality of Santa Rita, of Ituango, municipality of Norte de Antioquia, was murdered on Monday, June 25, 2018.

Garcia, who was also a member of the Coca, Poppy and Marijuana Growers National Coordinating body, Coccam, was shot by unknown persons who were armed with rifles, at about eight o’clock at night, when he was in the town center.

José Abraham was known for coming out in defense of the peasants of the region and for denouncing the irregularities that are committed against human rights defenders by the authorities and armed groups outside the law.

He was one of the participants in the demonstrations the previous March during which protection was demanded for coca growers in the Ituango municipality.

In August 2012, he had a confrontation with the Prosecutor’s Office, when the then prosecutor Luis Amín Mosquera, stated that “almost 100% of the population of Ituango is involved with the drug trafficking business and the FARC.”

Analysis Urbano and CORPADES condemn this latest bloody killing and call on the Colombian state “to guarantee the life and integrity of human rights defenders and social leaders who are being victims of genocide, as well as to promptly initiate investigations to find the whereabouts of the murderers of José Abraham García Oquendo and prevent this crime from remaining unpunished”.